Abstract

PARODI, Claudia Analía. Anxiety, depression and body image disorder in patients attending the Obesity Unit of the Hospital de Clínicas. Mem. Inst. Investig. Cienc. Salud [online]. 2015, vol.13, n.3, pp.64-74. ISSN 1812-9528.  https://doi.org/10.18004/Mem.iics/1812-9528/2015.013(03)64-74.

Obesity is a worldwide epidemic disease and it has multifactorial etiology. Due to this, it requires a multidisciplinary treatment. There are few data about the emotional, cognitive, behavioral and psychopathological features of adult obese patients especially in our region. The objective was to identify the presence of psychopathology in patients consulting at the Obesity Unit of the Hospital de Clinicas. The diagnosis of overweight and obesity was done according to the scale of Body Mass Index (BMI). Anxiety and depression were the psychopathological entities investigated using the Spanish version of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) that was self-administered. The presence of body image disorder was also evaluated through a self-administered instrument. Of all patients, 88.4% was female and the mean age was 42.8±12.7 years old and 43% of patients belonged to class III obesity. Anxiety had a prevalence of 18.8%, and depression 8.7%. . Body image disorders were present in 44.9% of all patients. These results agree with the data found in the international literature. There was an increased prevalence of psychopathology in patients consulting for obesity. Uncontrolled eating habits were also recorded suggesting the need for the application of validated instruments for Binge Eating Disorder.

Keywords : obesity; anxiety; depression; body image; psychopathology.

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